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AP Trophy
American college football trophy / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Associated Press Trophy is the annual award given by the Associated Press (AP) to the team ranked No. 1 in the season's final AP Poll. The trophy is emblematic of the college football national championship as awarded by the Associated Press.
![]() The Associated Press Trophy that was awarded to the 1997 Michigan Wolverines | |
Awarded for | the Associated Press college football National Champion |
---|---|
Country | United States |
Presented by | Associated Press |
History | |
First award | 1936 |
Most recent | Michigan |
The current version of trophy consists of a silver or gold football suspended above a base which contains the letters "AP" (for Associated Press), along with the information on who the recipient of the trophy was.[1]
Until the 1968 college football season, the final AP poll of the season was released following the end of the regular season,[2] with the exception of the 1965 season.[3]
Prior to the College Football Playoff (CFP) and Bowl Championship Series (BCS), the NCAA had not held a tournament or championship game to determine the national champion of what is now the highest level, NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) due to the long-standing historical ties between individual college football conferences and high-paying bowl games like the Rose Bowl and Orange Bowl. The NCAA did, however, recognize a national champion based upon the final results of major "wire-service" (AP and Coaches') polls. The extent of that recognition came in the form of acknowledgment in the annual NCAA Football Guide of the "unofficial" national champions. As a result, the public and the media began to acknowledge the leading vote-getter in the final AP Poll as the national champion for that season.[4][5]
The Associated Press was not tied to the BCS, and the trophy could be awarded to a team which did not win the BCS National Championship Game. This has happened once after the 2003 season when LSU won the BCS title game, but USC received a higher total of votes in the final AP Poll, and therefore received the AP National Championship Trophy.[6] Teams serving NCAA postseason bans are still eligible for the AP National Championship. This has occurred twice, following the 1957 and 1974 seasons.[7][8]